To me, one of the best
things about this time of year is holiday lights. They bathe the cold landscape
in a warm glow and herald the promise of the sun’s return during the darkest
days of winter. And every Christmas, the staff at the Port of Kingston pulls out all of the stops and decorates Mike Wallace Park in a million
of them. It’s no easy task. Preparations begin in March when volunteers start meeting
in the marina office to work on displays and it takes the guys a solid two
months to put them all up. This week marked the official turning on of the lights and we think all of their hard work paid off.

The best way to enjoy the lights is to take a walk through the park. Starting at the guest dock, visitors are warmly greeted by the Port of Kingston:

The marina office and water feature are next in line:

Along the back section of the park, the guys have planted a new garden:

And created an ocean scene complete with a crab, a seahorse, a jelly fish a square-rigger and salmon:

Every year they add more lights and displays so that's it's never the same twice. This year, one of the guys made "Bessie", Kingston's very own sea monster – she's pretty impressive:

And, of course, Kingston wouldn't be a sea port without its very own lighthouse:

A local nursery donates the Christmas tree and there's a big celebration at the pavilion in the park with bonfires, singers, food vendors and hot drinks. At 5 o'clock, Santa arrives by firetruck and turns on the lights.

The lights go beyond the park area and line the waterfront:

And now the view from the boat looks like this:

And that wraps up our walk
through Mike Wallace Park at the Port of Kingston, our quaint little seaside home. If you’d like to read more about
walks through interesting and unique places, check out Restless Jo and Jo’sMonday Walks.

RoscoeBay
is a yet another beautiful, undeveloped provincial marine park in the
Desolation Sound area, as well as a personal favourite of ours. Year after
year, we come back to enjoy the fresh-water lake, hiking, kayaking and the
views out to Waddington Channel and MountAddenbroke. But like most anchorages in the area, it can get very busy during
the high-season (mid-June through mid-September).

Located
on the southeastern side of WestRedondaIsland, the anchorage offers good protection from all
directions, though we’ve been told by people with local knowledge that
southeasterlies can make it uncomfortable and dangerous at times. The holding
is good in mud with depths of 4 to 10 metres (13 to 33 feet), but we have been
there when boats have dragged – a result of poor anchoring rather than the
conditions.

The
entrance to RoscoeBay,
which dries at zero tide, is narrow and can be intimidating the first time
through. But, if you time your arrival with a rising tide and according to your
boat’s draft and favor the south shore slightly, it’s straight-forward with an
average depth of 3.5 metres (12 feet) at high water. However, if your timing is
off, you can anchor outside the bar with a stern line to shore to wait for
higher water or spend the night.

Once
inside, you’ll find plenty to do. A short trail at the head of the bay leads to
BlackLake. Follow it beyond the kayak launching point, continue up the hill and
take the first trail on the left to the bathing rocks for a fresh-water swim.
If you have a kayak, you can portage it the short distance to the lake for a
paddle around – you won’t be disappointed. Or if walking is more your thing,
the trail continues and runs through rain forest to a lookout of the lake with
obstructed views.

For
a more strenuous hike, there’s a trail that leads to the top of Llanover
Mountain located on the northern side of the anchorage near the information
board (just west of the grassy knoll – make sure you take the time to read
about the thousands of moon jellies that make Roscoe Bay their home). The trail
is approximately four miles long with a 700 metre incline (2300 feet). The
first three miles are up-hill and the final one is a near-climb, but the view
from the top is worth the effort.

And
if you’re running low, someone has piped in drinking water from one of the
streams. The hose is attached to a boat fender along the northern shore near
the small waterfall. Avoid taking it after a heavy rainfall and always boil it
before drinking.

Entrance:50°09.69’N, 124°45.45W

Anchorage: Throughout
with good holding in mud in depths of 4
to 10 metres (13 to 33 feet).

Things to Do: Swimming, kayaking, SUPing, hiking, picking raspberries
and cherries along the northern shoal by the grassy knoll, and camping.

Disclaimer:This blog article is
not to be used for navigation.It is
purely an account of our personal experience in and around the Desolation Sound
area of British Columbia.

Since we'll be putting Cambria on the market soon, I thought it would be a good
idea to hightlight some of the work we’ve done over the years. Unfortunately,
the biggest jobs happened before we had the blogsite or took a lot of pictures.
For this post, I was able to scrounge up a few photos from an old camera phone
(circa 2004), but they’re not exactly impressive.

When we
bought Cambriain October of 2003, the anti-foul was so thick that it
was cracking in places and we knew it would have to be removed. We were living
in New Zealand then and by the time we worked up enough nerve to tackle the
job, David had gone back to work to top up the cruising kitty and put us right
with immigration so I was in charge of the operation (for the most part).

We
started off with a chemical paint stripper that was recommended by a fellow
cruiser, but it couldn’t handle the job. So, I moved on to hand scrapers with
replaceable blades like this one.

Progress
was slow. I took my time, stopping work whenever I got tired so I didn’t accidentally break through the gelcoat and damage it. I’m sure there was a
better tool than the one I chose, but it worked well and allowed me the control
I needed to do the job right.

Day after
day (after day), you could find me in the yard covered in blue anti-foul paint
as I carefully stripped layer after layer away from the hull. In some areas, it
came off easily with the simple stroke of the scraper. In others, like the
waterline, it was more stubborn and took hours to clear a square foot. To say
it was a painstaking process is a huge understatement.

Once the
paint was removed, David borrowed a surveyor’s theodolite from his job to
strike a new waterline (the old one was too low). After that, he lightly sanded
the hull to scuff the surface and open the pores so there would be a good key
for the for the next phase of the project: applying Interlux Interprotect 2000E,
a two-part epoxy coating that protects the hull from water and osmosis. The
company rep said three or four coats would do, but the product specs at the
time called for seven (current specs call for four or five). Happy to err on
the side of caution, we applied the seven coats over the course of three or
four days. Once it was fully dried, we applied four coats of Interlux Micron Extra
anti-foul paint (one red warning coat and three black coats).

The keel
needed attention as well, but required a different strategy. For that, I
scraped the paint off and applied two coats of Interlux Primocon Metal Primer
before painting with the Micron Extra.

The whole
process took about three weeks, but a lot of that was due to the fact that I
did most of the scraping myself and could only work three or four hours at a
time before my hands wore out. Had we both been able to scrape the hull, it probably
would have taken a week and a half (two weeks tops). Despite that, we save
thousands of dollars by doing the work ourselves and can look back with pride
on another job well done.

The problem with being your own boss whose only client can't speak or complain (that would be Cambria, the boat) is that it's really easy to get distracted, procrastinate or generally do nothing. Such was my our week (I don't normally like to tell tales on David but he was a bit lazy too). There are 101 reason I turned into a slacker, none of which were my fault. No. I blame squirrels . . . and a host of other things.

<!--[if gte mso 9]>You
know the scenes in the Disney movie “Up” when Dug the Dog tries to focus on
something but is easily distracted by squirrels. Yep. That was me this week. I
had squirrels running all around my head, both figuratively and literally. Starting
with this awesome squirrel feeder. If we ever move back to land, I have to get
one of these – can you imagine the fun?

It’s
for sale on a site called Archie McPhee – We Make Weird, an online novelty shop
(there’s a real store in Seattle).
They sell all sorts of cool things from cat bonnets to this Dress-Up Bigfoot.
It’s like Colorforms, those vinyl cling toys we played with back in the 70s. Do
you remember those? Man, I love Colorforms . . . and Bigfoot.

<!--[if gte mso 9]>With
Black Friday happening last week and Cyber Monday this week, I spent a lot of
time online shopping for deals and putting together my Christmas list (which is
how I found Archie McPhee). But the biggest squirrel in my life was Facebook. News articles are normally the number one culprit, but this
week saw a slew of cute dog videos like this one:

<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<
And
super-cute dog pictures that remind me of our Sally. She never got herself
caught between a chain link fence and a shed, but she was just the type of dog
to do it if the opportunity arose.

I
tried to break the habit, I really did. I wrote to-do lists. I organized my
days. I went outside in search of inspiration. But the cold weather and short
days conspired against me and kept pulling me back to the warmth of the boat and to the internet. There were sporting events to live-stream. Blogs to read.
Recipes for comfort food to download . . . and squirrels.<!--[if gte mso 9]>

All of which was a lot
more fun and interesting than doing boat jobs.

What about you? What word sums up your week? Join the
conversation below in the comments section or on our Facebook page. We’d love
to hear from you!

It seems ironic that Captain George Vancouver
chose the name Desolation Sound for what’s now one of British Columbia’s busiest and largest marine parks.
But in 1792, when Vancouver was surveying the Inside Passage, that’s what he found – desolation.
The scene is much different today, especially during the summer months when
thousands of happy boaters visit the area to enjoy its protected anchorages,
warm-water swimming, fresh-water lakes and mountain views. And no place is this
more evident than in Prideaux Haven.

The
entrance to the anchorage looks more difficult on paper than it is in reality:
The channel is narrow but clear with depths of 5 metres (16 feet) at low tide.
If you’re still not convinced, follow the advice laid out in “A Dreamspeaker
Cruising Guide: Desolation Sound” and line up with the park sign on Williams
Islands before turning to starboard and entering between Lucy Point (Eveleigh
Island) and the Oriel Rocks.

Once
inside, there’s plenty of room to anchor throughout the large bay with good
holding in mud in depths of 6 to 18 metres (20 to 60 feet) and protection from
all quadrants. Other options for anchoring include Melanie and Laura Coves as
well as several small, private anchorages outside of Cobblestone and RoffeyIslands, but check your charts carefully: The area is littered with
underwater rocks.

It’s
not difficult to find ways to pass the time in Prideaux Haven with plenty of
islets, lagoons and bays to explore by kayak or dinghy. In the summer, the
water is warm enough for swimming, especially in the shallow lagoon located off
CobblestoneIsland. In the fall, black bears can be seen foraging along the shore. There’s also a mile long trail from the head of Melanie Cove to
Laura Cove that was originally blazed by the famous hermits of Prideaux Haven,
Andrew “Mike” Shuttler and Phil Lavigne, for stretching the legs.

Shuttler
came to Melanie Cove from Minnesota. He left school at an early age to work but was intelligent and
educated himself by reading from the works or Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Plato
and Emerson and had an extensive library of books in his cabin. Like so many
others who came to Desolation Sound to make a life, he grew his own vegetables
and fruit, kept goats and logged trees when he needed money. In 1931, he became
ill and was moved to the hospital in PowellRiver where he died. His long-time neighbour, Phil Lavigne, wanted to
remember his friend so he built a bookshelf around his bed and moved Mike’s
library to his cabin in Laura Cove despite the fact that he was illiterate.

Phil
arrived to Prideaux Haven some time after Mike and is said to have killed a man
in Quebec. If true, he probably wasn’t wanted by the
authorities because he wrote letters to his family back home with the help of
friends and neighbours. In 1945, Phil got sick and was
taken to hospital in PowellRiver. He died in August of 1946 and was
buried in an unmarked grave in the CranberryCemetery, just like Mike. Remains from the
homesteads no longer exist – the closest you can get is the outhouse in Melanie
Cove which is believed to be on the site of Mike's former cabin.

But
if none of those activities interest you – swimming, kayaking, exploring –there’s always lazing about the cockpit (or in the hammock) simply
enjoying the view, which may be the best thing about Prideaux Haven.

Entrance:50°08.74’N, 124°41.03’W

Anchorage: Throughout
with good holding in mud in depths of
6 to 18 metres (20 to 60 feet).

Things to Do: Swimming, kayaking, SUPing, hiking, watch the shore for
wildlife (bears in September and October), camping (no fires).

Disclaimer:This blog article is
not to be used for navigation.It is
purely an account of our personal experience in and around the Desolation Sound
area of British Columbia.